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21/07/2009

Three reasons journalists shouldn't use Flash

Great article in 10000 words. For online visual journalists, Flash is the one, big, necessary tool. There are many others, but Flash is the king. But sometimes Flash is not the right tool. The three reasons are better explained on the complete post, but here you are the headlines (comments are mine):

1. Flash projects take a long time to createThere are many ways to create graphics, so think twice before starting a Flash prohject that could be explained perfectly as a text or as a video... But, you really need to do it not just with Flash, do it also with print graphics.

2. Many projects don't need to be animatedThat's true, many time it looks like we don't know that online graphic can be static. An image. If it doesn't need to be animated, don't do it. If you don't use it properly, animation is sometimes more a disturb than a help. Maybe sometimes we just don't need a Flash.

3. Most journalists are not designersWant a professional product? Be professional. It not just the tool. You have to think visually. Let visual journalists work on visual news. It's not just the 'how to', is also the 'why'.